At the invitation of both the Changjiang Weekly and Changjiang Daily, 15 foreign students from six universities visited the Optics Valley International Tennis Center, one of the 7th World Military Games (WMG) sports venues, on September 11.

photo by Chen Yunfeng


 

　　The Tennis Center contains three magnificent stadiums with 15,000 seats, 5,000 seats and 3,000 seats respectively. Our visitors, who were from Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University of Technology, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan Sports University, and South-Central University for Nationalities, toured the 15,000-seat stadium which was completed in 2015.
 

　　The group learnt about the structure of the entire stadium and court, which was just resurfaced with eleven layers of paint. They walked into the player’s area which will be strictly forbidden during a competition, and had a glimpse of the locker rooms, gym, and massage rooms. They also got a chance to enter the media center, the press conference rooms, and the exciting exhibiton room where the outfits and shoes worn by Petra Kvitova, winner of both 2014 and 2016 Wuhan Open, were presented along with other signatures of famous tennis players.

　　Comments from visitors:

　　Kingsley Rui from Papua New Guinea, studying at Wuhan University of Technology:

　　Honestly, I think the sheer scale and size of the stadium is truly mind blowing.

　　Muhammad Atique from Pakistan studying at Huazhong University of Science and Technology:

　　Actually, an empty stadium and a full stadium are really different. When the match is going on, the environment and circumstances in the stadium are really different, especially when you have maximum numbers of spectators. This stadium is fully equipped with modern technology, so I believe everybody will enjoy the matches.

　　Vasilissa Tarabrina from Russia studying at Wuhan University:

　　I was very curious to visit this place, to see how "magic happens". It turned out that organizing such a huge event like the Wuhan Open requires a lot of resources, skills, patience and, the most important, passion for tennis. I am very grateful to Changjiang Weekly for this amazing opportunity to visit this beautiful stadium. This event will definitely become number one in China very soon!

　　Bashar Ebrahem from Syria studying at Wuhan Sports University:

　　As a sportsman, I take this visit as a good experience to learn how to prepare for a high level championship, so that I can copy it in my country in the future.

　　Sharif Islam from Bangladesh studying at Huazhong University of Science and Technology:

　　This is my first visit to the Optics Valley International Tennis Center. It is really wonderful and well designed. I hope that when the international tennis players compete in the stadium, they will feel at home in this charming place.